Myths and lies: consensus economics edition

[salvorhardin]

Everybody needs to listen to Harry Shearer's October 28th interview with Stephanie Kelton of New Economics Perspectives: http://harryshearer.com/le-show

It's only about a half hour, but here it is in a nutshell from a recent blog post by Kelton.

The truth is, we’re not broke. The US dollar comes from the US government (not from China, as we’re led to believe). The US government is not revenue constrained. It is the Issuer of the currency, not the User of the currency like you and I. It plays by a completely different set of rules, yet it behaves as if it is still bound by the shackles of a gold standard. It behaves irresponsibly when it proposes policies to reduce the deficit when unemployment is high and inflation is low. We’re letting millions of Americans suffer because Pete Peterson and his ilk have convinced virtually everyone that we face a fiscal crisis in this country. We live in fear of the Chinese, the Ratings Agencies, the Bond Vigilantes, Indentured Grandchildren, and so on. And this fear is used by politicians on both sides of the political aisle to sell “sacrifice” to the rest of us. And we keep buying.

Link: http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2012/10/pete-peterson-has-won.html

Yet the mainstream consensus on both the right and (neoliberal) left is that the US is about to go into monetary collapse, and anybody who says otherwise, like Paul Krugman, is not only unbelievable but 'downright dangerous'.

CNBC’s Becky Quick ... takes to the pages of Fortune to attack the Nobel-winning Princeton economist [Paul Krugman]’s 'downright dangerous' idea that we’re not in a fiscal crisis and don’t need Simpson-Bowles’ advice, writing that 'It is hard to find anyone who actually agrees with him.'

Link: http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/inside_the_bubble_with_cnbc_an.php?page=all

We sorely need a way of countering the economic myths and lies propagated by the likes of Pete Peterson.